Club Atlas

Atlas

Full name	Atlas Fútbol Club
Nickname(s)	Los Zorros (The Foxes) Los Rojinegros (The Red-and-Blacks) La Academia (The Academy) Equipo Numero Uno De Guadalajara Jalisco. (The Number One Team Of Guadalajara Jalisco) Las Margaritas(The Daisies)
Founded	15 August 1916 (1916-08-15)
Ground	Estadio Jalisco, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
Capacity	55,110[1]
Owner	Grupo Salinas
Chairman	Gustavo Guzmán
Manager	Ángel Guillermo Hoyos
League	Liga MX
Apertura 2017	8th (Liguilla Quarterfinals)
Website	Club website
Home colours Away colours

Atlas Fútbol Club (Spanish pronunciation: [kluβ ˈatɬas]) is a Mexican football club. Atlas plays in Guadalajara, Mexico, in the Liga MX. The club's home stadium is Estadio Jalisco in Guadalajara.

History

Club Atlas was founded in a bar of Guadalajara, Mexico, where a few friends recalled their football experience at the Ampleforth College where they had spent the last few years. Alfonso and Juan José "Lico" Cortina, Pedro "Perico" and Carlos Fernández del Valle, the three Orendain brothers and Federico Collignon (who had studied in Berlin) finally decided in 1916 to set up a football team called "Club Atlas" and founded it in Guadalajara.

The technical ability that the "Atlistas" employed – triangular passing and skillful dribbling to avoid opponents' tackles – was impressive and they quickly joined the elite in Mexican football. As a result, Atlas and Chivas, a fellow Guadalajara team, have a long history in the first division and the game between them is called the 'Clásico Tapatío'.

Club Atlas had a golden age in the late 1990s under the management of Ricardo La Volpe, with promising players such as Rafael Márquez, Daniel Osorno, Juan Pablo Rodriguez, Pavel Pardo, Mario Méndez, Omar Briceño, Miguel Zepeda, and Cesar Andrade.

Youth Academy

Atlas are renowned for having a successful youth academy setup. In the last few decades, Atlas have developed many players who have gone on to have professional careers domestically and internationally. Many young players enter the Atlas youth academy knowing that they'll have a strong possibility to play with the first team due to the club philosophy of allowing youth players the opportunity to be promoted to the first team. Although Atlas has only won the league championship once, their academy has been famous for developing players for the Mexico national football team in the past few decades like Jared Borgetti, Daniel Osorno, José de Jesús Corona, Pável Pardo, Oswaldo Sánchez, Rafael Márquez, Juan Carlos Medina, Jorge Hernández, Mario Méndez, Miguel Zepeda, Juan Pablo Rodriguez, Juan Pablo Garcia, Hugo Ayala, Jorge Torres Nilo, Edgar Ivan Pacheco, Andrés Guardado and many more. The club's lower youth divisions have achieved many titles domestically as well as internationally.

International competitions

Atlas has participated twice in Copa Libertadores. The first appearance was in 2000 after qualifying through a preliminary round-robin stage where they faced Club America, Deportivo Tachira and Deportivo Italchacao. They got off to a bad start losing 2–0 to America then drawing with Deportivo Tachira 2–2 and 3–3 with Deportivo Italchacao. However they would recover and finish first of the group after defeating Club America 6–3, Deportivo Tachira 2–0 and drawing 2–2 with Deportivo Italchacao on the second legs.

Atlas would then be drawn into Group 4 alongside River Plate, Universidad de Chile and Atletico Nacional. At home they would draw 1–1 with River Plate, draw 0–0 with Universidad de Chile and defeat Atletico Nacional 5–1. In the second legs they would defeat Atletico Nacional by a score of 3–2 but lose to both River Plate and Universidad de Chile by the same score. Atlas would go on to finish 2nd in the group with just a point behind River Plate and leveled in points with Universidad de Chile but a better goal difference would see them go through. After having impressed in the group stage they would eliminate Junior of Barranquilla in the Round of 16 with scores of 2–0 and 3–1. However, in the quarterfinals their run would come to an end after losing twice to Palmeiras with scores of 2–0 and 3–2.

Their second appearance was in the year 2008 after first having to earn a ticket by participating in the qualifying tournament known as the Interliga where they faced Toluca, Morelia and Club America. After a goalless draw to Toluca, a 2–0 victory over Morelia and a 3–2 defeat to Club America, they would find themselves second of the group and statistically leveled with Toluca in every possible way. Given the circumstances, a coin toss was issued in which Atlas ended up winning. Having finished second they lost their opportunity to automatically qualify for the Copa Libertadores and had to play San Luis for a ticket to the Copa Libertadores First Stage. They would defeat San Luis easily by a score of 3–0.

In the preliminary First Stage Atlas faced the Bolivian team La Paz and defeated them 2–0 at the Jalisco then they lost 1–0 in La Paz and so with a 2–1 aggregate they would finally earn their ticket and be drawn in group 3 with Boca Juniors, Colo-Colo and Maracaibo. Atlas were impressive and finished first in the group with 11 points. At home they defeated Boca Juniors 3–1 and defeated both Colo-Colo as well as Maracaibo with a score of 3–0. Away from home they drew 1–1 with Maracaibo and Colo-Colo but lost 3–0 to Boca Juniors. In the Round of 16 they would eliminate Lanus with scores of 1–0 and 2–2 at home. In the quarterfinals they would face Boca Juniors once again. The first match was played at the Jose Amalfitani stadium due to the sanction that was imposed on Boca Juniors. The game was spectacular, undoubtedly one of the best of the tournament. Atlas went ahead early on by a headed goal from Omar Flores then Boca Juniors would tie after an own goal from Hugo Ayala. Both teams would have several goal scoring chances throughout the game and 15 minutes before the end of the match, Caceres would put Boca up 2–1. However, in the 88th minute Atlas would equalize from a set piece from a sensational header from Jorge Torres. So with much optimism the team would head home to receive the Argentines at the Jalisco. In the second game Atlas were not so fortunate. They suffered early injuries but the worst was yet to come for them as Palermo would have a memorable hat-trick before half time. The game ultimately ended 3–0 and Atlas once again find themselves knocked out in the quarterfinals.

In their third appearance they lost at Home against Santa Fe 1–0. They were obligated to get a win in their next visit against Atletico Mineiro which they defeated with a goal scored by Christian Suarez in the 86th minute which gave them the Victory 1–0 and ended a 37-year undefeated streak at Home in Copa Libertadores for Atletico Mineiro.

Estadio Jalisco

Atlas currently plays in the Estadio Jalisco, which is the third largest stadium in Mexico and was constructed on 31 January 1960. It is a venue that has played host to historic matches and teams including Pelé's Brazil in 1970. In total, It was host for 8 games in the 1970 FIFA World Cup, 6 of which were from group stage matches, and two were quarter and semi-finals. Subsequently, the stadium was again host for 9 games in the 1986 FIFA World Cup, 6 of which were group stage matches, 1 was round of sixteen and the last 2 were quarter and semi-finals.

Fans

Atlas fans are as a whole collectively known as La Fiel (The Faithful), while La Barra 51 is the main organized supporter group. La Barra 51's name recalls Atlas' last and only championship in the Primera División de México in 1951. Through the team's struggling performance La Fiel has earned its name, supporting the team for 60 years without any major accomplishments.

Personnel

Coaching staff

Position	Staff
Manager	Ángel Guillermo Hoyos
Assistant managers	Ángel Maldonado
	J. Guadalupe Ramos
Goalkeeper coach	Fabián Villaseñor
Fitness coaches	Eric Secada
Physiotherapists	Guillermo López
	Salvador Magalla
	Eder Fiol
Team doctor	José Ángel Gutiérrez

Players

First-team squad

As of 29 August 2018^[2]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK José Santiago Hernández 2 DF Nicolás Pareja 3 DF Leiton Jiménez 5 DF Gaddi Aguirre 6 MF Edgar Zaldívar 7 MF Juan Pablo Vigón 8 MF Andrés Andrade (on loan from León) 10 MF Clifford Aboagye 11 MF Ricky Álvarez 12 GK Jonathan Estrada 13 MF Ulises Cardona 14 DF Omar Gonzalez (on loan from Pachuca) 15 MF Bryan Garnica 16 DF Heriberto Olvera (on loan from Pachuca)

No. Position Player 17 FW Jefferson Duque 18 FW Alejandro Díaz (on loan from América) 19 FW Octavio Rivero 20 MF Jairo Torres 21 MF Lorenzo Reyes 23 GK Édgar Hernández (on loan from Querétaro) 24 DF Cristian González 25 MF José Ávila 26 DF Cristian Calderón 27 MF Edyairth Ortega 28 MF Patrick Soko 29 DF Ismael Govea 30 DF Edson García

For recent transfers, see List of Mexican football transfers summer 2018.

Out on loan

No. Position Player — GK José Alujas (at Tuxtla) — GK Iván Calderón de la Barca (at Tecos) — GK Alejandro Estrada (at Durango) — GK Miguel Fraga (at UNAM) — GK Héctor Lomelí (at La Piedad) — DF Carlos Arreola (loan to UdeC) — DF Daniel Arreola (loan to Puebla) — DF Diego Barbosa (at Sinaloa) — DF Christopher Chavoya (at Tuxtla) — DF Fabián Guzmán (at Matamoros) — DF Juan de Dios Hernández (at Zacatepec) — DF Giovanni León (at Atl. San Luis) — DF José Monroy (at Durango) — DF Amado Pérez (at Matamoros) — DF Enrique Pérez (at Veracruz) — DF Carlos Plascencia (at Durango) — DF Roberto Villamarín (at Alianza Lima) — MF Fabrizio Díaz (at Tepatitlán) — MF Ángel Gaspar (at Zacatepec) — MF Héctor Gómez (at Cancún) — MF Diego González (at Durango)

No. Position Player — MF Daniel Hernández (at Atlante) — MF Huber López (at Inter Playa) — MF Carlos Nava (at Tuxtla) — MF Aldo Leão Ramírez (at Atlético Nacional) — MF Juan de Dios Ramírez (at La Piedad) — MF Luis Robles (at Puebla) — MF Luis Rodríguez (at La Piedad) — MF Rodolfo Salinas (at Celaya) — MF Luis Télles (at UdeG) — MF Fernando Vázquez (at Oaxaca) — MF Rodolfo Vilchis (at Morelia) — FW Matías Alustiza (at UNAM) — FW Juan Celada (at Tuxtla) — FW Daniel Delgadillo (at Tuxtla) — FW Fidel Martínez (at Peñarol) — FW Gerardo Martínez (at Irapuato) — FW Dagoberto Mejía (at Durango) — FW Édson Rivera (at Sinaloa) — FW Sergio Rodríguez (at Oaxaca) — FW Flavio Santos (at Oaxaca) — FW Brayan Villalobos (at Tapachula)

Shirt sponsors and manufacturers

Honours

• Liga MX: 1

1950-51

Runner-up (3): 1948–49, 1965–66, Verano 1999

• Copa MX: 4

1945–46, 1949–50, 1961–62, 1967–68

Runner-up (1): Apertura 2013

• Campeón de Campeones: 4

1946, 1950, 1951, 1962

Runner-up (1): 1967–68

• Segunda División de México: 3

1954–55, 1971–72, 1978–79

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Club Atlas.

• (in Spanish) Official site
• (in Spanish) Primera División
• (in Spanish) Atlas Discussion Forum